ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON LIVING PARTICLES. 427 



affected by it ; while the morbid cells, growing so 

 fast that time is not allowed for the production of a 

 hard external envelope, are fully exposed to the free 

 action of soluble matters which transude from the 

 blood. These, therefore, undergo the changes already 

 described, and are caused to increase more slowly, 

 while many are destroyed. In the growing cells in the 

 air-cells of a hepatized lung, then, there is no evidence 

 of deficiency of vital power ; and the remedies which 

 act favourably really seem to act, not by increasing 

 vital power, but by diminishing the rate at which vital 

 changes are proceeding in fact, by causing particles of 

 bioplasm which were living too fast to live more slowly 

 and by causing the death of many. 



Authors View supported by many General Facts. 

 This explanation of the action of alcohol is in harmony 

 with many broad facts familiar to all. By it we may 

 account for the shrivelling of the hepatic cells, the 

 shrinking of the secreting structure, and the increased 

 hardness and condensation of the entire liver, which 

 result from the continual bathing of the gland-struc- 

 ture by blood almost constantly loaded with alcoholic 

 poison. It explains the gradual shrinking and con- 

 densation of tissues which occur in persons who have 

 long been accustomed to excess. The tendency to 

 increased formation of adipose tissue which occurs in 

 many of those who live generously, and seems to be" 

 augmented by alcohol, may be explained upon the 

 same view, and the stunting in growth which follows 



